Method and apparatus for controlling placement of virtual character and storage medium

ABSTRACT

A method for controlling placement of a virtual character includes: displaying a virtual character at a first position in a virtual reality (VR) scene; receiving a first instruction in the VR scene, the first instruction indicating moving the virtual character from the first position by a designated movement; displaying, in response to receiving the first instruction, third indication information as a preview of the designated movement in the VR scene; determining, according to the first instruction, a second position by the designated movement from the first position in response to the first instruction; removing the virtual character from the first position; and placing the virtual character at the second position, the virtual character not appearing between the first position and the second position after being removed from the first position.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/538,147 filed on Aug. 12, 2019. U.S. application Ser. No. 16/538,147is a continuation of PCT Application No. PCT/CN2018/096646 filed on Jul.23, 2018, which in turn claims priority to Chinese Patent ApplicationNo. 201710613071.2, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLINGPLACEMENT OF VIRTUAL CHARACTER” filed with the National IntellectualProperty Administration, PRC on Jul. 25, 2017. The three references areincorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

Embodiments of the present application relate to the computer field, andspecifically, to a method and an apparatus for controlling placement ofa virtual character, and related storage medium.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

How to control free movement of a virtual character in virtual space hasbeen an important issue since three-dimensional (3D) games appeared.There were various methods for controlling movement of a virtualcharacter in early stage of development of game devices and platforms.Thereafter, standardized methods for designing and implementing freemovement of a virtual character in virtual space emerged, designstandards were formed, and accordingly users formed user operationhabit.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present application provide a method and an apparatusfor controlling placement of a virtual character and a storage medium.The method includes: receiving a first instruction in a virtual reality(VR) scene, the first instruction indicating moving a virtual characterfrom a first position by a designated movement; determining a secondposition by the designated movement from the first position in responseto the first instruction; removing the virtual character from the firstposition; and placing the virtual character at the second position, thevirtual character not appearing between the first position and thesecond position after being removed from the first position.

An embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatusfor controlling placement of a virtual character. The apparatus forcontrolling placement of a virtual character includes: a processor and amemory connected to the processor, the memory storing machine readableinstructions executable by the processor. The processor executing themachine readable instructions to complete the following operations:receiving a first instruction in a virtual reality (VR) scene, the firstinstruction indicating moving a virtual character from a first positionby a designated movement; determining a second position by thedesignated movement from the first position in response to the firstinstruction; removing the virtual character from the first position; andplacing the virtual character at the second position, the virtualcharacter not appearing between the first position and the secondposition after being removed from the first position.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a non-volatilecomputer readable storage medium, the storage medium storing machinereadable instructions, and the machine readable instructions beingexecutable by a processor to complete the foregoing method forcontrolling placement of a virtual character.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings shown herein are provided for furtherunderstanding of the embodiments of the present application, andconstitute a part of the present application, and the exemplaryembodiments of the present application and their description are usedfor explaining the present application, but do not constitute improperlimitations to the present application. In the figures:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a hardware environment of a method forcontrolling placement of a virtual character according to an embodimentof the present application;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for controlling placement of a virtualcharacter according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for controlling a virtual character todisappear from a first place and controlling the virtual character toappear at a second position according to an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 4 is another flowchart of a method for controlling a virtualcharacter to disappear from a first place and controlling the virtualcharacter to appear at a second position according to an embodiment ofthe present application;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for determining a second position awayfrom a first position by designated movement according to an embodimentof the present application;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for determining an area within apreset distance range away from an intersection position as a positionindicated by a second position according to an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another method for controlling placement of avirtual character according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of presenting a special effect ofplacement according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of presenting another special effect ofplacement according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10a is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for controllingplacement of a virtual character according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 10b is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for controllingplacement of a virtual character according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 10c is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for controllingplacement of a virtual character according to an embodiment of thepresent application; and

FIG. 11 is a structural block diagram of a terminal according to anembodiment of the present application.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

To make a person skilled in the art better understand solutions of thepresent application, the following clearly and completely describes thetechnical solutions in the embodiments of the present application withreference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the presentapplication. Apparently, the described embodiments are merely somerather than all of the embodiments of the present application. All otherembodiments obtained by persons skilled in the art based on theembodiments of the present application without creative efforts shallfall within the protection scope of the present application.

It should be noted that the terms “first” and “second” in thespecification, the claims, and the accompanying drawings of the presentapplication are used only to differentiate similar objects, and do notdescribe a specific relationship or sequence therebetween. It is to beunderstood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriatecircumstances such that the embodiments of the present applicationdescribed herein can be implemented in sequences other than thoseillustrated or otherwise described herein. Moreover, the terms“include”, “comprise”, and any variants thereof are intended to cover anon-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, product,or device that includes a series of steps or units is not necessarilylimited to those steps and units expressly listed, but may include othersteps or units not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,product, or device.

In some embodiments, a method for controlling movement of a virtualcharacter in 3D space may be implemented by using three platformsincluding a personal computer (PC) terminal, a console terminal, and amobile phone terminal.

A keyboard and a mouse are used by default to perform input operationson a PC terminal. Key control of a virtual character is already highlystandardized. Four keys “W”, “A”, “S”, and “D” on the keyboard may beused for moving forward, moving backward, strafing left, and strafingright to perform continuous and linear actions of the virtual character.The front, rear, left, and right of the virtual character are determinedaccording to relative positions of viewpoints of a video cameracontrolled by the mouse. The mouse is configured to control anorientation of the camera, and the orientation may be any angle.

Each console terminal is provided with a dedicated gamepad. That is,control operations are predefined on each console. Generally, a joystickon the gamepad is configured to control a virtual character to freelymove in virtual space. A console terminal and a PC terminal do not havedistinctly different operations, and both have continuous movement.Buttons on the console emulate operations of a mouse. The onlydifference is that a console has customized hardware devices.

Smartphones are fully embracing various games. That is, an increasinglylarge number of original 3D games are provided on mobile phones.Original physical key operations are turned into virtual key operationson mobile phones. A virtual joystick is configured to control movementof a virtual character or object in 3D space.

A VR terminal provides an omnidirectional 3D perception. That is,instead of converting 3D virtual space into a 2D picture and displayingthe 2D picture on a plane, a user is present in the virtual space. Atpresent, VR is generally used in many flight games, shooter games, amongothers. However, the user feels very dizzy when a visually-inducedperception is inconsistent with a perception of the body. Therefore, VRterminals are not suitable for simulation of continuous movement offirst-person virtual characters.

HTC Vive on the Vive platform is a VR head-mounted display and isjointly developed by Hongda International Electronics (HTC) and ValveCorporation. This head-mounted display uses “room scale” technology. Aroom is converted into 3D space by using sensors. A user is allowed tonaturally navigate and walk around in a virtual world and use amovement-tracking handheld controller to vividly manipulate an object toimplement precise interaction and communication and experience of animmersive environment. A Vive device can track real-world space andfurther completely map the real-world space to virtual space. Therefore,during the design of many casual games, it is designed that a size ofvirtual space is close to that of tracking space of Vive. In this way, auser can move completely free in such space. However, the size ofsimulation space is limited, and different devices can track differentsizes of virtual space, resulting in low adaptability to differentdevices.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present application provides amethod for controlling placement of a virtual character.

In some embodiments of the present application, the foregoing method forcontrolling placement of a virtual character may be applied to ahardware environment that includes a server 102 and a terminal 104 shownin FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the hardware environment ofthe method for controlling placement of a virtual character according toan embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1, the server102 is connected to the terminal 104 via a network. The networkincludes, but is not limited to, a wide area network, a metropolitanarea network or a local area network. The terminal 104 is not limited toa PC, a mobile phone, and a tablet computer. The method for controllingplacement of a virtual character in this embodiment of the presentapplication may be performed by a computing device, for example, theserver 102, or may be performed by the terminal 104, or may be jointlyperformed by the server 102 and the terminal 104. When the terminal 104performs the method for controlling placement of a virtual character inthis embodiment of the present application, the method may be performedby a client installed on the terminal 104.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for controlling placement of a virtualcharacter according to an embodiment of the present application. Themethod may be applied to a computing device. As shown in FIG. 2, themethod may include the following steps:

Step S202: Receive a first instruction used for instructing thecomputing device to generate a designated movement of a virtualcharacter from a first position in a VR scene.

In the technical solution provided by step S202 of the presentapplication, the first instruction used for instructing the virtualcharacter to generate the designated movement from the first position isreceived in the VR scene.

In VR, that is, a virtual scene or a virtual environment, avirtualization technology is used and latest developments oftechnologies such as computer graphics, computer simulation, artificialintelligence, sensing, display, and network parallel processing areintegrated to provide a high-tech simulated system generated with theassistance of computer technologies. A virtual world of 3D space isgenerated through computer simulation to provide a user with a simulatedenvironment involving visual perception and the like, so that the userobserves an object in the 3D space in time in an unlimited manner andenjoys immersive experience. When the virtual character representing theuser moves in the virtual environment, a computer may immediatelyperform complex operation on information of the virtual character andfeedback precise 3D space in a video form, so that the user can have thesensation of presence.

The VR scene in this embodiment is a scene that is obtained bysimulating a real-world scene by using a VR technology and is applicableto a specific application. For example, the VR scene is a scene that isobtained by completely mapping real-world space to virtual space byusing the VR technology and is applicable to a game application. Thegame application is a VR game application, and is an application showinga process of controlling placement of the virtual character in someembodiments of the present application. In the VR scene, the user ismapped to the virtual character. In some embodiments of the presentapplication, operations of the user are mapped to actions of the virtualcharacter. For example, the user pushes a joystick of a VR device in anydirection, and a placement selection mechanism of the virtual characteris triggered. When the user releases the joystick, the placementselection mechanism of the virtual character is canceled. In addition,the VR scene may provide the user with a simulated scene involvingvisual perception and the like, so that the user can use the virtualcharacter to observe an object in the scene in time in an unlimitedmanner, and the user has the sensation of presence in the real-worldscene.

According to some embodiments of the present application, for example,in the VR scene: a change process of placement of the virtual charactermay be implemented; an area accessible to the virtual character may bedetermined, for example, a valid area in which the virtual character isallowed to move is determined; an operation performed by the virtualcharacter may be determined, for example, a type of a skill that thevirtual character is allowed to use during a fight is determined; andattributes possessed by the virtual character may be assigned, forexample, the level of difficulty that the health of the virtualcharacter is regenerated or depleted. This is not limited herein.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the VR sceneis a large-scale online multiplayer scene. That is, the VR sceneincludes a plurality of online virtual characters. A user correspondingto each virtual character may learn about a change process of an actionof a virtual character corresponding to another user, for example, learnabout the change process of placement of the virtual charactercorresponding to another user.

It should be noted that the foregoing VR scene is only a preferredimplementation in this embodiment of the present application, and itdoes not mean that the VR scene in this embodiment of the presentapplication is only limited to the foregoing manners. Any VR scene inwhich the method for controlling placement of a virtual character can beimplemented and a user can be prevented from easily feeling dizzybecause of continuous movement of a virtual character falls within theprotection scope of the present application. Examples are not enumeratedherein again.

The virtual character in this embodiment moves in the VR scene,placement of the virtual character may be controlled. A placementmechanism of the virtual character is first triggered. That is, theplacement selection mechanism of the virtual character in the VR sceneis started, and the first instruction used for instructing the virtualcharacter to generate the designated movement from the first position isreceived. That is, the designated movement by which the virtualcharacter is to move in the VR scene is selected. It is convenient andflexible to trigger the first instruction. The first position is astarting place of the virtual character in the VR scene before movement,and includes an initial position and an initial orientation in the VRscene. The orientation is a direction in which the virtual charactermoves.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the firstinstruction is generated based on a physical gamepad. The joystick maybe pushed in any direction to trigger selection of the designatedmovement, or a touchpad may be pressed at any position to triggerselection of the designated movement, so as to select a uniqueorientation of the virtual character. According to some embodiments ofthe present application, physical keys for precisely controllingdirections may be used. For example, the joystick and the touchpad areused.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the joystickis pushed in any direction to trigger selection of a placement positionon the Oculus platform. The touchpad is pressed at any position totrigger selection of the designated movement on the Vive platform.Oculus Rift on the Oculus platform is a VR head-mounted display, andused software is mainly electronic games and uses programming customizedfor Rift.

Step S204: Determine a second position away from the first positionbased on the designated movement after the first instruction isreceived.

In the technical solution provided by step S204 of the presentapplication, the second position away from the first position by thedesignated movement is determined after the first instruction isreceived.

The second position away from the first position by the designatedmovement is determined after the first instruction is received. Thesecond position is a place to which the virtual character is to move inVR space. When the joystick is pressed or the touchpad is released frompressing, a placement determination mechanism is triggered. That is, itis triggered that the virtual character needs to move. Specifically, howto determine the second position away from the first position by thedesignated movement is described in detail in the following embodiments.

According to some embodiments of the present application, because it isconvenient and flexible to trigger the first instruction, placement maybe triggered by mistake in a placement triggering mechanism. Therefore,the embodiment may further provide a placement cancellation mechanism inwhich the joystick may be released, or a large circular touchpad may belifted to cancel the determined designated movement. For example, theuser may release the joystick to cancel the selected designated movementon the Oculus platform, the user may lift the touchpad to cancel theselected designated movement on the Vive platform, and the subsequentplacement selection mechanism is not triggered.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the designatedmovement may be previewed after the designated movement is determined.For example, a curve is used for previewing the determined designatedmovement. A time of an extending process of the curve is a bufferingtime for determining placement. When placement is triggered by mistake,the user may cancel the determined placement in time. A presentedspecial effect of the curve in the VR scene is slowly projecting a rayfrom a position of a hand towards the right front of the gamepad. Forexample, a curve with an arrow is slowly produced. It takesapproximately one second for the curve to bend and extend to the ground,so that the head of the curve is used for representing the position ofthe second position.

According to some embodiments of the present application, on the Oculusplatform, a complete operation procedure of the user is pushing thejoystick to trigger the placement selection mechanism, then adjusting aspatial position and direction of a hand of the user to determine aposition of the designated movement, then adjusting a direction of thejoystick to determine a direction of the designated movement, andfinally pressing the joystick to confirm that the designated movement isstarted; and on the Vive platform, a complete operation procedure of theuser is pressing the touchpad to trigger the placement selectionmechanism, then adjusting a spatial position and direction of a hand ofthe user to determine a position of the designated movement, thenadjusting a position of a touch point of the hand to determine adirection of the designated movement, and finally lifting the hand toleave the touchpad to confirm that the designated movement is started.Therefore, the operations of determining the designated movement aresimple, convenient, and fast.

Step S206: Removing the virtual character from the first position andcontrol the virtual character to appear at the second position. Thevirtual character does not appeared between the first position and thesecond position during this movement.

In the technical solution provided by step S206 of the presentapplication, the virtual character is controlled to disappear from thefirst position and the virtual character is controlled to appear at thesecond position, where the virtual character has not appeared betweenthe first position and the second position.

The virtual character is controlled to disappear from the first positionand the virtual character is controlled to appear at the second positionafter the second position away from the first position by the designatedmovement is determined. For the user, the virtual character is keptstill at the first position, that is, stays in a static state. A cameraslowly cuts to black. Next, when the camera restores display, thevirtual character is switched to a position and an orientation indicatedby the second position. As the camera slowly restores display, theposition and orientation of the virtual character that are indicated bythe second position do not change, that is, the virtual character alsostays in a static state. As the virtual character disappears from thefirst position and appears at the second position, the virtual characterhas not appeared between the first position and the second position. Inthis way, the virtual character is teleported in the VR scene. The userdoes not feel the acceleration and speed from continuous movement, andteleportation is implemented to avoid continuous movement, therebypreventing dizziness and improving user experience.

For other users in the VR scene, for sudden disappearance from the firstposition and sudden appearance at the second position, special effectsof whirling dots may simultaneously appear at the first position and thesecond position, the dots at the first position are deflected towardsthe second position during disturbance like being blown by wind. Thatis, particle wind is generated to indicate occurrences at the firstplace and the second position to the other users. A direction of theparticle wind is used for indicating an origin and a destination of achange process of placement of the current virtual character in the VRscene to the other users, to enable the other users in the VR scene toclearly see a placement process of the virtual character, so that anoperation method adapts to various hardware specifications, operationsare simple and convenient and can be easily learned, and desirableperformance is achieved in a large-scale multiplayer real-time online VRscene.

In step S202 to step S206, the first instruction used for instructingthe virtual character to generate the designated movement from the firstposition is received in the VR scene; the second position away from thefirst position by the designated movement is determined after the firstinstruction is received; and the virtual character is controlled todisappear from the first position and the virtual character iscontrolled to appear at the second position, the virtual characterhaving not appeared between the first position and the second position.That is, the virtual character is controlled to disappear from the firstposition and the virtual character is controlled to appear at the secondposition in the VR scene, so that the virtual character is teleported toavoid continuous movement, and a technical effect of preventing a userfrom easily feeling dizzy because of continuous movement of a virtualcharacter is achieved, thereby resolving a technical problem in relatedtechnologies that a user easily feels dizzy because of continuousmovement of a virtual character.

In some other embodiments of the present application, step S206 ofcontrolling the virtual character to disappear from the first positionand controlling the virtual character to appear at the second positionincludes: controlling the virtual character to stay at the firstposition and controlling a viewer to cut to black after the secondposition is determined; and controlling the viewer to restore displayand controlling the virtual character to stay at the second positionafter the viewer is controlled to cut to black. The viewer may be anytype of the VR/AR viewer, such as a camera or a display screen.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for controlling the virtual characterto disappear from the first position and controlling the virtualcharacter to appear at the second position according to an embodiment ofthe present application. As shown in FIG. 3, the method includes thefollowing steps:

Step S301: Keep the virtual character at the first position and controlthe viewer to cut to black after the second position is determined.

In the technical solution provided by step S301 of the presentapplication, the virtual character is controlled to stay at the firstposition and the viewer is controlled to cut to black after the secondposition is determined, where the viewer is used for displaying apicture of the VR scene.

The first position is an initial position of the virtual character inthe VR scene before movement. The virtual character is controlled tostay at the first position after the second position away from the firstposition by the designated movement is determined. That is, the virtualcharacter is controlled to stay still at the first position, and theviewer cuts to black, so that the virtual character disappears from thefirst position. The viewer is used for displaying the picture of the VRscene. That is, the picture of the VR scene is a picture seen by theuser corresponding to the virtual character in the VR scene.

In this embodiment, the virtual character is controlled to stay at thefirst position and the viewer is controlled to cut to black to implementa display effect of sudden disappearance of the virtual character fromthe first position.

Step S302: Control the viewer to restore display and control the virtualcharacter to be placed at the second position after the viewer iscontrolled to cut to black.

In the technical solution provided by step S302 of the presentapplication, the viewer is controlled to restore display and the virtualcharacter is controlled to stay at the second position after the vieweris controlled to cut to black.

The viewer is controlled to restore display of the picture after thevirtual character is controlled to stay at the first position and theviewer is controlled to cut to black. That is, the viewer is no longerblack. At this time, the virtual character stays at the second positionin the VR scene. The second position is a latest place that the virtualcharacter reaches and is away from the first position by the designatedmovement. The designated movement is determined by the placementselection mechanism. The virtual character has not appeared between thefirst position and the second position, so as to prevent the usercorresponding to the virtual character from feeling dizzy because ofcontinuous movement of the virtual character in the VR scene.

In this embodiment, the viewer is controlled to restore display and thevirtual character is controlled to stay at the second position toimplement a visual effect of sudden appearance of the virtual characterat a new position.

In this embodiment, the virtual character is controlled to stay at thefirst position and the viewer is controlled to cut to black after thesecond position is determined, where the viewer is used for displayingthe picture of the VR scene; and the viewer is controlled to restoredisplay and the virtual character is controlled to stay at the secondposition after the viewer is controlled to cut to black, so that thevirtual character is controlled to disappear from the first position andthe virtual character is controlled to appear at the second position,thereby achieving a technical effect of preventing the user from feelingdizzy because of continuous movement of the virtual character.

In some other embodiments of the present application, step S301 ofcontrolling the viewer to cut to black includes: controlling the viewerto gradually cut to black, where the virtual character is kept at thefirst position as the viewer gradually cuts to black; and step S302 ofcontrolling the viewer to restore display includes: controlling theviewer to gradually restore display, where the virtual character is keptat the second position as the viewer gradually restores display.

When the viewer is controlled to cut to black, the viewer is controlledto gradually cut to black. That is, the viewer slowly cuts to black whenthe virtual character is controlled to stay at the first position, sothat the virtual character disappears from the first position in the VRscene. The viewer is controlled to gradually restore display when theviewer is controlled to restore display. That is, the viewer slowlyrestores display of the picture of the VR scene. As the viewer slowlyrestores display, the position and orientation of the virtual characterat the second position are kept unchanged. That is, the virtualcharacter is kept in a static state. In such a process in which theviewer gradually cuts to black and a process in which the viewergradually restores display, the user corresponding to the virtualcharacter does not feel the acceleration and speed from continuousmovement during placement, and the user does not feel dizzy accordingly,thereby improving user experience.

In some other embodiments of the present application, step S206 ofcontrolling the virtual character to disappear from the first positionand controlling the virtual character to appear at the second positionincludes: controlling the virtual character to disappear from the firstposition, and displaying first indication information at the firstposition after the second position is determined; and controlling thevirtual character to appear at the second position, and displayingsecond indication information at the second position.

FIG. 4 is another flowchart of a method for controlling the virtualcharacter to disappear from the first position and controlling thevirtual character to appear at the second position according to anembodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4, the methodincludes the following steps:

Step S401: Remove the virtual character from the first position, anddisplay the first indication information at the first position after thesecond position is determined.

In the technical solution provided by step S401 of the presentapplication, the virtual character is controlled to disappear from thefirst position and the first indication information is displayed at thefirst position after the second position is determined, where the firstindication information is used for indicating the occurrence at thefirst position in the VR scene.

The first indication information is displayed at the first position whenthe virtual character is controlled to disappear from the first positionafter the second position away from the first position by the designatedmovement is determined. The first indication information may be dots,that is, disappearance dots indicating that the virtual character isabout to disappear from the first position. According to someembodiments of the present application, the special effect of whirlingdots is presented within a preset range of the first position and isused for indicating the occurrence at the first position in the VRscene, so as to remind the user of the occurrence.

Step S402: Display the virtual character to appear at the secondposition, and display the second indication information at the secondposition.

In the technical solution provided by step S402 of the presentapplication, the virtual character is controlled to appear at the secondposition, and the second indication information is displayed at thesecond position, where the second indication information is used forindicating the occurrence at the second position in the VR scene.

The virtual character is controlled to appear at the second position andsimultaneously the second indication information is displayed at thesecond position after the virtual character is controlled to disappearfrom the first position. The second indication information may be dots,that is, appearance dots indicating that the virtual character is aboutto appear at the second position. According to some embodiments of thepresent application, the special effect of whirling dots is presentedwithin a preset range of the second position and is used for indicatingthe occurrence at the second position in the VR scene.

In this embodiment, the virtual character is controlled to disappearfrom the first position and the first indication information isdisplayed at the first position after the second position is determined,where the first indication information is used for indicating theoccurrence at the first position in the VR scene; and controlling thevirtual character to appear at the second position, and displaying thesecond indication information at the second position, where the secondindication information is used for indicating the occurrence at thesecond position in the VR scene, so that the virtual character iscontrolled to disappear from the first position and the virtualcharacter is controlled to appear at the second position.

In some other embodiments of the present application, step S401 ofdisplaying first indication information at the first position includes:displaying a moving first dot at the first position, where the firstindication information includes the moving first dot; and step S402 ofdisplaying the second indication information at the second positionincludes: displaying a moving second dot at the second position, wherethe second indication information includes the moving second dot, and amoving direction from the first dot to the second dot is used forrepresenting a change process of the virtual character from the firstposition to the second position.

In this embodiment, for other users in the VR scene, the moving firstdot is displayed at the first position when the first indicationinformation is displayed at the first position. The first dot mayinclude a plurality of small particles. The plurality of small particleswhirl around to indicate the occurrence at the first position in the VRscene to the other users or may represent that the place in the VR sceneis a position of the virtual character before movement. When the virtualcharacter is controlled to appear at the second position and the secondindication information is displayed at the second position, the movingsecond dot is displayed at the second position to indicate theoccurrence at the second position in the VR scene to the other users ormay represent that the place in the VR scene is a position of thevirtual character after movement. According to some embodiments of thepresent application, the second dot is different from the first dot. Forexample, a quantity of dots included by the second dot is different froma quantity of dots included by the first dot, and/or a size of a dotincluded by the second dot is different from a size of a dot included bythe first dot.

The moving direction from the first dot to the second dot is used forrepresenting the change process from the first position to the secondposition. The first dot may be deflected towards the second positionduring disturbance to obtain the second dot. A special effect presentedin the change process from the first dot to the second dot is particlewind having an effect of wind blowing through. The direction of theparticle wind is used for indicating, to the other users in the VRscene, that the change process of placement of the virtual character isthe change process from the first position to the second position. Sucha placement presentation process enables other users in the VR scene tolearn about the change process of placement of the virtual character andis applicable to a large-scale multiplayer scene.

It should be noted that presented special effects of the firstindication information and the second indication information are onlypreferred implementations of this embodiment of the present application,but it does not mean a presented special effect in this embodiment ofthe present application is only a presented special effect of particles.Other methods that may be used for indicating to the user that thechange process of placement of the virtual character is the changeprocess from the first position to the second position all fall withinthe protection scope of the present application. Examples are notenumerated herein again.

In some other embodiments of the present application, before step S204of determining a second position away from the first position by thedesignated movement, the method includes: displaying third indicationinformation used for indicating the designated movement; and step S204of determining a second position away from the first position by thedesignated movement includes: determining the second position accordingto the third indication information.

Because the placement triggering mechanism of the virtual character isconvenient and flexible, that is, placement may be triggered by mistakeduring selection of the designated movement, it is necessary to providethe user with the buffering time, that is, a hesitation time, and theuser may cancel, within the buffering time, the placement that istriggered by mistake. In this embodiment, the buffering time for theuser to determine placement is provided before the second position awayfrom the first position by the designated movement is determined. Thethird indication information used for indicating the designated movementis displayed after the placement selection mechanism is triggered. Thethird indication information may be presented by using a special effectto preview a selection result of the designated movement. The secondposition is determined according to the third indication information.For example, the position and orientation of the second position in theVR scene are determined according to the third indication information.

In some other embodiments of the present application, the displayingthird indication information used for indicating the designated movementincludes: displaying a curve used for indicating the designatedmovement, where the third indication information includes the curve.

A special effect presentation form of the third indication informationmay be slowly projecting a ray from the position of the hand of the usertowards the right front of the gamepad when the third indicationinformation used for indicating the designated movement is displayed.For example, the ray is a blue curve with an arrow. After a particularperiod of time, the curve bends and extends to the ground. According tosome embodiments of the present application, it takes approximately onesecond for the curve to bend and extend to the ground. A presentedspecial effect, for example, a cylinder shown at the end of the curveshown in FIG. 8, of the new position indicated by the head of the curveappears. The time of the extending process of the blue curve is thebuffering time of the user. The user releases a joystick on the Oculusplatform, and the user lifts a large circular touchpad on the Viveplatform, so that the placement selection mechanism is canceled, and thesubsequent placement mechanism is not triggered.

In some other embodiments of the present application, the determiningthe second position according to the third indication informationincludes: determining an intersection position of the curve and a presetplane; and determining an area within a preset distance range away fromthe intersection position as a position indicated by the secondposition.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for determining the second positionaway from the first position by the designated movement according to anembodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 5, the methodincludes the following steps:

Step S501: Determine the intersection position of the curve and thepreset plane.

In the technical solution provided by step S501 of the presentapplication, the intersection position of the curve and the preset planeis determined, where the preset plane is used for supporting the virtualcharacter.

The second position includes a final position and orientation of thevirtual character in the VR scene. The position and orientation that areindicated by the second position are determined when the second positionaway from the first position by the designated movement is determined.The intersection position of the curve and the preset plane isdetermined, and the end of the curve may be represented by the cylinder.A special effect of the cylinder is used for presenting a position andan orientation of the user after movement.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the positionindicated by the second position is an intersection position of thepreset plane and a parabola that is drawn from the right front of thehand of the user at a particular speed. The preset plane may be aposition such as the ground or a mountain that is used for supportingthe virtual character in the VR scene. This is not limited herein.

Step S502: Determine the area within the preset distance from theintersection position as the position indicated by the second position.

In the technical solution provided by step S502 of the presentapplication, the area within the preset distance range away from theintersection position is determined as the position indicated by thesecond position.

The area within the preset distance range away from the intersectionposition is determined as the position indicated by the second positionafter the intersection position of the curve and the preset plane isdetermined, so that the position indicated by the second position isdetermined.

In this embodiment, the intersection position of the curve and thepreset plane is determined; and the area within the preset distancerange away from the intersection position is determined as the positionindicated by the second position, so that the second position away fromthe first position by the designated movement is determined. Further,the virtual character is controlled to disappear from the first positionand the virtual character is controlled to appear at the secondposition. A technical effect of preventing a user from easily feelingdizzy because of continuous movement of a virtual character is achieved.

In some other embodiments of the present application, step S502 ofdetermining the area within the preset distance range away from theintersection position as the position indicated by the second positionincludes: detecting whether the second position is valid in the VRscene; and determining the area within the preset distance range awayfrom the intersection position as the position indicated by the secondposition if it is detected that the second position is valid in the VRscene.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for determining the area within thepreset distance range away from the intersection position as theposition indicated by the second position according to an embodiment ofthe present application. As shown in FIG. 6, the method includes thefollowing steps:

Step S601: Detect whether the second position is valid in the VR scene.

In the technical solution provided by step S601 of the presentapplication, it is detected whether the second position is valid in theVR scene.

A concept of an invalid teleportation area is introduced in thisembodiment. Some virtual areas in the VR scene are inaccessible to thevirtual character. However, the parabola produced by the hand of theuser can reach any virtual area in the VR scene. Therefore, a virtualarea needs to be restricted. To detect whether the second position isvalid in the VR scene is to detect whether the second position is avirtual area accessible to the virtual character. If it is detected thatthe second position is a virtual area accessible to the virtualcharacter, it is determined that the second position is valid in the VRscene. If it is detected that the second position is a virtual areainaccessible to the virtual character, it is determined that the secondposition is not valid in the VR scene.

Step S602: Determine the area within the preset distance from theintersection position as the position indicated by the second positionif the second position is valid in the VR scene.

In the technical solution provided by step S602 of the presentapplication, the area within the preset distance from the intersectionposition is determined as the position indicated by the second positionif it is detected that the second position is valid in the VR scene.

The system detects whether the second position is valid in the VR scene.The area within the preset distance range away from the intersectionposition is determined as the position indicated by the second positionif it is detected that the second position is valid in the VR scene, sothat the position indicated by the second position is determined, thevirtual character is controlled to disappear from the first position,and the virtual character is controlled to appear at the secondposition. A technical effect of preventing the user from easily feelingdizzy because of continuous movement of a virtual character is achieved.

Step S603: Display preset mark information if it is detected that thesecond position is not valid in the VR scene.

In the technical solution provided by step S603 of the presentapplication, the preset mark information is displayed if it is detectedthat the second position is not valid in the VR scene, where the presetmark information is used for indicating that the second position is notvalid in the VR scene.

In this embodiment, an accessible area in a virtual scene is marked. Ifthe system detects that the second position is not valid in the VRscene, that is, the second position is an inaccessible area in the VRscene. That is, when the parabola line intersects with the secondposition, because the second position is inaccessible to the virtualcharacter, the system may display special effects of both the curve andthe position indicated by the second position by a distinctive color,for example, red, so as to remind the user that the virtual charactercannot be teleported to the second position. At this time, if the userpresses the joystick or lifts a large circular touchpad, placementselection may be canceled, and a placement presentation scene is nottriggered.

In some other embodiments of the present application, after thedisplaying third indication information used for indicating thedesignated movement, the method further includes: receiving a secondinstruction, where the second instruction is used for instructing tocancel placement of the virtual character from the first position, andthe placement includes the designated movement; and controlling thevirtual character to cancel the designated movement from the firstposition after the second instruction is received.

Because the placement triggering mechanism is very convenient andflexible, the second instruction is generated when the user releases thejoystick or lifts the large circular touchpad, and the placementdetermination mechanism is triggered. The user releases a joystick onthe Oculus platform, and the user lifts a large circular touchpad on theVive platform, so that the second instruction is generated, theplacement selection mechanism is canceled according to the secondinstruction, and the subsequent placement mechanism is not triggered.

In some other embodiments of the present application, the determining asecond position away from the first position by the designated movementincludes: receiving a third instruction, where the third instruction isused for indicating a position indicated by the second position; anddetermining the position indicated by the second position after thethird instruction is received.

The third instruction is generated by using an operation of the userwhen the second position away from the first position by the designatedmovement is determined, and the third instruction is received toindicate the position of the second position, so as to determine theposition of the second position.

In some other embodiments of the present application, the receiving athird instruction includes: acquiring position information of a firstoperating object in a real-world scene, where the first operating objectis configured to adjust the position indicated by the second position,and the position information corresponds to the position indicated bythe second position; and acquiring the third instruction according tothe position information.

The first operating object may be the hand of the user. The user maysimply change the position of the hand, the third instruction may bereceived by rotating an angle of the right front of the hand, and theposition of the designated movement may be radically adjusted accordingto the third instruction.

In some other embodiments of the present application, the determining asecond position away from the first position by the designated movementincludes: receiving a fourth instruction, where the fourth instructionis used for indicating an orientation indicated by the second position;and determining the orientation indicated by the second position afterthe fourth instruction is received.

The fourth instruction is generated by using an operation of the userwhen the second position away from the first position by the designatedmovement is determined, and the fourth instruction is received toindicate the orientation of the second position, so as to determine theorientation of the second position.

In some other embodiments of the present application, the receiving afourth instruction includes: acquiring angle information of a secondoperating object in a real-world scene, where the second operatingobject is configured to adjust the orientation indicated by the secondposition, and the angle information corresponds to the orientationindicated by the second position; and acquiring the fourth instructionaccording to the angle information.

The second operating object may be the gamepad. A direction selectionmechanism of the gamepad may be used for determining the angleinformation. On the Oculus platform, 360-degree directions of thejoystick are mapped to horizontal 360-degree directions of the positionindicated by the second position. Therefore, the user only needs to veryconveniently rotate the joystick to a direction to determine theorientation indicated by the second position. According to someembodiments of the present application, an arrow provided at the end ofthe curve is used for presenting the second position of the virtualcharacter in the VR scene, so as to visually present the designatedmovement and determine the position and orientation of the virtualcharacter after movement by the designated movement.

In some other embodiments of the present application, the receiving afirst instruction used for instructing to generate the designatedmovement of a virtual character from a first position includes:receiving the first instruction by using a joystick; and the determininga second position away from the first position by the designatedmovement includes: determining the second position by using thejoystick; or, the receiving a first instruction used for instructing togenerate the designated movement of a virtual character from a firstposition includes: receiving the first instruction by using a touchpad;and the determining a second position away from the first position bythe designated movement includes: determining the second position byusing the touchpad.

The implementation of this embodiment is compatible to two currentcommercially available mainstream headsets Oculus and Vive andcorresponding operation gamepads. If a new hardware device emerges, theoperations in this embodiment are also applicable.

This embodiment provides a method for controlling placement of a virtualcharacter in a VR scene. Operations of a user are simple, convenient,and intuitive. A previewing effect during placement selection may veryintuitively inform the user of a result of an operation of the user. Avirtual character is teleported to prevent the user from feeling dizzybecause of continuous movement in the VR scene. A direction specialeffect is used for enabling other users in the scene to clearly see aplacement process of the virtual character, so that an operation methodadapts to various hardware specifications, operations are simple andconvenient and can be easily learned, and desirable performance isachieved in a large-scale multiplayer real-time online scene.

The technical solutions of the present application are described belowwith reference to the embodiments, and mainly a logic control procedureof controlling placement of a virtual character on a program level isdescribed.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another method for controlling placement of avirtual character according to an embodiment of the present application.As shown in FIG. 7, a rounded rectangle is used for representing a userinput, a standard rectangle is used for representing a logic unit, arhombus is used for representing control flow selection, and a dashedline is used for separating implementation logic of a placementselection process and a placement presentation process. The methodincludes the following steps:

Step S701: A user pushes a joystick or presses a touchpad.

During control of placement of a virtual character, first, in aplacement triggering mechanism, the user pushes the joystick or pressesthe touchpad. The placement triggering mechanism is based on a physicalgamepad. Placement triggering mechanisms on different platforms areslightly different. The joystick is pushed in any direction to triggerselection of a placement position on the Oculus platform. The touchpadis pressed at any position to trigger selection of placement on the Viveplatform. The Oculus platform and the Vive platform have ratherdifferent physical keys but have a consistent design concept. That is,because an orientation of placement needs to be selected, physical keysfor precisely controlling directions of placement are required, and thejoystick and the touchpad are the best choices.

Step S702: Start a placement selection mechanism.

The placement selection mechanism is started after the user pushes thejoystick or presses the touchpad.

Step S703: Adjust a spatial position and orientation of a hand of theuser.

The spatial position and orientation of the hand of the user areadjusted after the placement selection mechanism is started. The usermay simply move the spatial position of the hand and rotate the angle ofthe right front of the hand to adjust the spatial orientation of thehand.

Step S704: Adjust a position of designated movement.

The spatial position and orientation of the hand of the user areadjusted to radically adjust the position of the designated movement.

Step S705: Adjust a direction of the joystick or adjust a position ofthe touch point.

A direction selection mechanism of the gamepad is used for determiningan angle after the placement selection mechanism is started. Forexample, on the Oculus platform, 360-degree directions of the joystickare mapped to horizontal 360-degree directions of a target position.Therefore, the user only needs to rotate the joystick to a direction tovery conveniently determine a target rotation position, so as todetermine a direction of the designated movement. Alternatively, theposition of the touch point on the touchpad is adjusted to determine thedirection of the designated movement.

Step S706: Adjust the direction of the designated movement.

The direction of the designated movement is adjusted after the directionof the joystick is adjusted or the position of the touch point isadjusted.

Step S707: Wait a buffering time.

In this embodiment, the placement triggering mechanism is veryconvenient and flexible. However, placement may be triggered by mistakein this embodiment. Therefore, a cancellation mechanism for cancelingthe designated movement is required. The buffering time is waited afterthe position of the designated movement and the direction of thedesignated movement are adjusted, so as to provide a hesitation time tothe user during placement selection. According to some embodiments ofthe present application, a ray is slowly projected from the position ofthe hand of the user towards the right front of the gamepad. Forexample, a blue curve with an arrow is slowly discharged, and the bluecurve may also be referred to as a parabola. It takes approximately onesecond for the curve to bend and extend to the ground. A presentedspecial effect (a cylinder shown at the end of the curve shown in FIG.8) of a new position indicated by the head of the curve appears. Anextending process of the curve provides the user with the hesitationtime, that is, the buffering time.

For example, the user releases the joystick on the Oculus platform, andthe user lifts the large circular touchpad on the Vive platform, so thatthe placement selection mechanism is canceled, and a subsequentplacement mechanism is not triggered. If the curve extends till apresented special effect appears at the position of the end of thecurve, it represents that a placement presented special effect istriggered.

If the buffering time ends, that is, the curve bends and extends to theground and a presented special effect of the new position indicated bythe head of the curve appears, step S708 is performed. If the bufferingtime does not end, that is, the curve does not bend and extend to theground and a presented special effect does not appear at the newposition indicated by the head of the curve, for example, a user ofOculus releases the joystick or a user of Vive lifts the large circulartouchpad, step S716 is performed.

Step S708: Check validity of the target position.

The validity of the target position of the designated movement ischecked after the buffering time ends. Some virtual areas in a VR sceneare set to be inaccessible to the virtual character. However, theparabola produced by the hand of the user can reach any virtual area.Therefore, a virtual area needs to be restricted.

According to some embodiments of the present application, a positionaccessible to the virtual character in the VR scene is marked. The drawnparabola may intersect with an inaccessible area, because the virtualcharacter cannot reach the inaccessible area, special effects of boththe parabola and the target position may be set to a red color to remindthe user that the virtual character cannot be teleported to the targetposition. At this time, if the user presses the joystick or lifts thelarge circular touchpad, placement selection is canceled, and placementpresentation is not triggered. If it is found through checking that thetarget position is valid, step S709 is performed. If it is found throughchecking that the target position is not valid, step S716 is performed.

Step S709: Confirm the designated movement.

After the validity of the target position is checked, if it is foundthrough checking that the target position is valid, the designatedmovement is to be confirmed. If the designated movement is confirmed,step S711 is performed. If the designated movement is not confirmed,step S716 is performed.

Step S710: Press the joystick or release the touchpad.

A placement selection and confirmation mechanism is also designed to bevery convenient. When the user presses the joystick or releases thetouchpad, a placement determination mechanism is triggered, and stepS709 is performed.

Step S711: Start the placement mechanism.

The placement mechanism is started after the designated movement isconfirmed.

That is, an operation of generating placement of the virtual characteris triggered.

Step S712: Control a camera to cut to black.

The virtual character is kept still, that is, kept in a static state, ata current position and the camera is controlled to slowly cut to blackafter the placement mechanism is started. The camera is used fordisplaying a picture of the VR scene.

Step S713: Determine a position and a direction of a new place accordingto the designated movement.

The position and the direction of the new place that the virtualcharacter is to reach are determined according to the designatedmovement.

Step S714: Play a special effect.

The virtual character is enabled to disappear suddenly at the currentposition after the camera is controlled to cut to black, and a specialeffect of whirling dots may be played.

Step S715: Control the camera to restore display.

The camera is controlled to restore display, and the virtual characteris controlled to arrive at a position and an orientation that areindicated by the new place in the VR scene. As the camera slowlyrestores display, the virtual character does not change, that is, iskept in a static state, at the position and orientation indicated by thenew place. In this process, the user does not feel the acceleration andspeed from continuous movement of the virtual character and thereforedoes not feel dizzy.

When the virtual character suddenly appears at the new place, thespecial effects of whirling dots appear simultaneously at the new placeand an original place. The dots at the original place are then deflectedtowards the new place during disturbance like being blown by wind. Thespecial effects at the new place and the original place are used forindicating occurrences at the places to other users. A direction of aparticle wind is used for indicating an origin and a destination of achange process of placement of a current user to the other users.

Step S716: Cancel the placement selection mechanism.

When the buffering time does not end, for example, when a user of Oculusreleases the joystick or a user of Vive lifts the large circulartouchpad, or after it is found through checking that the target positionis not valid, or if the designated movement is not confirmed, theplacement selection mechanism is canceled.

During placement selection of the virtual character in this embodiment,once a change process of a position and an angle of placement of thevirtual character is started, the change process stays on. At theinstant when the change process of the position and angle ends, it isdetermined whether the position and angle of the placement after thechange meet requirements to perform a next operation. For example, thevalidity of the target position is checked. The designated movement isconfirmed when it is found through checking that the target position isvalid, and the placement selection mechanism is canceled when it isfound through checking that the target position is not valid, so thatthe virtual character is teleported to avoid continuous movement, and adirection special effect is used for enabling other players in a sceneto clearly see a placement process of the virtual character, so that anoperation method adapts to various hardware specifications, operationsare simple and convenient and can be easily learned, and desirableperformance is achieved in a large-scale multiplayer real-time onlinescene.

The application environment in this embodiment of the presentapplication may be, but is not limited to, the application environmentin the foregoing embodiments. This is not described in detail again inthis embodiment. An embodiment of the present application provides anoptional specific application of the method for controlling placement ofa virtual character. Specifically, the method is described by using anexample in which the VR scene is a game application.

A design form of the embodiment mainly includes two parts. One parttakes place before placement of the virtual character in the VR scene isdetermined, and the other part takes place after the placement of thevirtual character in the VR scene is determined. The two parts areseparately described below.

Before the placement of the virtual character in the VR scene isdetermined, first, in the placement triggering mechanism, the placementtriggering mechanism is based on the physical gamepad. Placementtriggering mechanisms on different platforms are slightly different. Forexample, the joystick is pushed in any direction to trigger selection ofa placement position on the Oculus platform. The touchpad is pressed atany position to trigger placement selection on the Vive platform. TheOculus platform and the Vive platform have rather different physicalkeys but have a consistent design concept. That is, because theorientation of placement needs to be selected, physical keys forprecisely controlling directions are required, and the joystick and thetouchpad are the best choices.

Next, the placement triggering mechanism is very convenient theflexible. That is, placement may be triggered by mistake. Therefore, aplacement cancellation mechanism is required. The buffering time fordetermining placement may be provided to a game player. The hesitationtime is provided to the game player when the placement of the virtualcharacter in the VR scene is determined. After the placement selectionmechanism is triggered, a special effect presentation of the VR scene isslowly projecting a ray, for example, a curve with an arrow shown inFIG. 8, from the position of a hand of the game player towards the rightfront of a gamepad. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of presenting aspecial effect of placement according to an embodiment of the presentapplication. The curve with the arrow may have a color. For example, thecurve is blue, and it takes approximately one second for the end of thecurve to bend and extend to the ground, and a presented special effectat the new position of the head of the curve appears. For example, thecylinder shown at the end of the curve shown in FIG. 8 appears. Theextending process of the curve provides the hesitation time to the gameplayer. That is, the buffering time for determining placement isprovided to the game player.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the gameplayer releases a joystick on the Oculus platform, and the game playerlifts a large circular touchpad on the Vive platform, so as to cancelthe placement selection mechanism, and the subsequent placementmechanism is not triggered. If a presented special effect appears at aposition of an end to which the curve extends appears, for example, thecylinder shown at the end of the curve shown in FIG. 8 appears, itrepresents that a presentation scene of placement in the VR scene istriggered.

The placement selection and confirmation mechanism, that is, theplacement determination mechanism is also designed to be veryconvenient. When the game player presses the joystick or releases thelarge circular touchpad, the placement determination mechanism istriggered.

Again, the position and direction of the placement are determined. Thespecial effect of the cylinder at the end of the curve shown in FIG. 8is used for presenting present the position and the orientation of thedetermined placement in the VR scene to the game player. According tosome embodiments of the present application, to determine the positionof the placement, the target position of the placement is determined anintersection position of the ground and the parabola that is drawn at aparticular speed according to the right front of the hand of the gameplayer. Therefore, the game player only needs to simply change theposition of the hand and rotate the angle of the right front of the handto radically adjust the target position of the placement. The angle ofthe placement is determined by using a direction selection mechanism ofthe gamepad. For example, the 360-degree directions of the joystick aremapped to the horizontal 360-degree directions of the target position onthe Oculus platform. Therefore, the game player also only needs to veryconveniently rotate the direction of the joystick to determine thetarget rotation position. For example, the presented special effect (thecylinder at the end of the curve in FIG. 8) at the end of the curveshown in FIG. 8 may use a protruding arrow to clearly present the targetrotation position. Therefore, in this embodiment, a special effect ofplacement is used for presenting the placement of the virtual characterto the game player in a highly visual manner, to enable the game playerto learn about a position and an orientation of a place that the virtualcharacter is to reach.

In addition, some virtual areas in a VR game scene are set to beinaccessible to the game player, but a parabola projected from the handof the game player can reach any virtual area in the VR scene.Therefore, an accessible area to the game player needs to be restricted.According to some embodiments of the present application, an accessiblearea in the VR scene is marked. If the projected parabola intersectswith the target position in an inaccessible area, because the virtualcharacter cannot reach the virtual area, special effects of both theparabola and the target position are set to a distinctive color, forexample, red, to remind the game player that the area is accessible. Atthis time, if the game player presses the joystick or lifts the largecircular touchpad, the selected placement is canceled, and placementpresentation is not triggered.

In the foregoing process, operations of the game player are as follows:The game player pushes a joystick on the Oculus platform to trigger aplacement selection mechanism, then adjusts a spatial position anddirection of a hand to determine a position of a designated movement,then adjusts a direction of the joystick to determine a direction of thedesignated movement, and finally presses the joystick to confirm startof placement; and the game player presses the touchpad on the Viveplatform to trigger the placement selection mechanism, then adjusts aspatial position and direction of a hand to determine a position of adesignated movement, then adjusts the position of the touch point of thehand on the touchpad to determine a direction of the designatedmovement, and finally lifts the hand to leave the touchpad to confirmstart of placement. The entire operation process may be performed veryconveniently and rapidly with one hand, so that the game playerdetermines a destination of placement of the virtual character.

After the direction and position of the placement are confirmed, anoperation of generating placement of the virtual character correspondingto the game player is triggered, and the following steps are thentriggered:

First, for the game player, a current position of the virtual charactercorresponding to the game player in the VR scene is kept still, that is,kept in a static state, the camera then slowly cuts to black, and thecamera then slowly restores display to show that the virtual characteris at a previously selected new position and orientation. As the cameraslowly restores display, the new position and orientation of the virtualcharacter do not change either, that is, are kept in a static state. Insuch a process, the game player does not feel the acceleration and speedfrom continuous movement of the virtual character and therefore does notfeel dizzy.

Next, for other game players in the VR scene, the virtual charactersuddenly disappears from a starting position in the VR scene andsuddenly appears at another new position, special effects of whirlingdots appear simultaneously at two places, as shown in FIG. 9. FIG. 9 isa schematic diagram of presenting another special effect of placementaccording to an embodiment of the present application. Dots at anoriginal position are deflected towards the new position duringdisturbance like being blown by wind. The special effect of the dots atthe new position and the special effect of the dots at the originalposition are used for indicating occurrences at the places to other gameplayers. A direction of the particle wind is used for indicating anorigin and a destination of a change process of the placement of thecurrent virtual character to the other game players.

In this embodiment, the operations of the game player are simple,convenient, and intuitive. During placement selection, the selectedplacement may be previewed to inform the game player of a result of theoperations in a very intuitive manner. In the entire placementpresentation process, the game player corresponding to the virtualcharacter that undergoes placement feels comfortable and does not feeldizzy. In addition, during the placement presentation, the other gameplayers also learn about the change process of placement of the virtualcharacter. Therefore, the solution is also applicable to a large-scalemultiplayer scene.

It should be noted that the foregoing presented special effect ofplacement may be adjusted. However, the objective and effect representedby the presented special effect are consistent with the objective andeffect in the foregoing embodiment. That is, the presented specialeffect provides a buffering time for determining placement to the gameplayer, so that the game player learns about the position andorientation of the place that the virtual character is to reach. Thespecial effect at the new position and the special effect at theoriginal position are used for indicating occurrences at the places tothe other game players to indicate an origin and a destination of thechange process of placement of the virtual character.

It should be noted that the implementation of this embodiment iscompatible to two current commercially available mainstream headsetsOculus and Vive and corresponding operation gamepads. If a new hardwaredevice emerges, operations of the hardware device are also applicable tothe method for controlling placement of a virtual character in thisembodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that the foregoing method embodiments are illustratedas a series of action combinations for ease of description; however, aperson skilled in the art should know that the embodiments of thepresent application is not limited to the described order of actions,because based on the embodiments of the present application, some stepsmay be performed in another order or at the same time. Next, a personskilled in the art should know that the embodiments described in thespecification are all exemplary embodiments, and the involved actionsand modules are not necessarily required in the present application.

Through the above description of the implementations, it is clear topersons skilled in the art that the foregoing embodiments may beaccomplished through software plus a necessary universal hardwareplatform or may certainly also be accomplished through hardware.However, software programs plus a necessary universal hardware platformare generally a preferred implementation. Based on this, the technicalsolutions of the embodiments of the present application or the part thatmakes contributions to the existing technology can be substantiallyembodied in the form of a software product. The computer softwareproduct may be stored in a non-volatile computer readable storage medium(for example, a ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk), andcontain several machine readable instructions to instruct a terminaldevice (for example, a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a networkdevice) to perform the method described in the embodiments of thepresent application.

An embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatusfor controlling placement of a virtual character configured to implementthe foregoing method for controlling placement of a virtual character.FIG. 10a is a schematic diagram of the apparatus for controllingplacement of a virtual character according to an embodiment of thepresent application. As shown in FIG. 10a , the apparatus may include areceiving unit 10, a determining unit 20, and a control unit 30.

The receiving unit 10 is configured to receive a first instruction usedfor instructing to generate designated movement of a virtual characterfrom a first position in a VR scene.

The determining unit 20 is configured to determine a second positionaway from the first position by the designated movement after the firstinstruction is received.

The control unit 30 is configured to control the virtual character todisappear from the first position and control the virtual character toappear at the second position, the virtual character having not appearedbetween the first position and the second position.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the controlunit 30 includes a first control module and a second control module. Thefirst control module is configured to control the virtual character tostay at the first position and control a viewer to cut to black afterthe second position is determined, where the viewer is used fordisplaying a picture of the VR scene. The second control module isconfigured to control the viewer to restore display and control thevirtual character to stay at the second position after the viewer iscontrolled to cut to black.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the firstcontrol module is configured to control the viewer to gradually cut toblack, where the virtual character is kept at the first position as theviewer gradually cuts to black; and the second control module isconfigured to control the viewer to gradually restore display, where thevirtual character is kept at the second position as the viewer graduallyrestores display.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the controlunit 30 includes a third control module and a fourth control module. Thethird control module is configured to: control the virtual character todisappear from the first position, and display first indicationinformation at the first position after the second position isdetermined, where the first indication information is used forindicating an occurrence at the first position in the VR scene. Thefourth control module is configured to: control the virtual character toappear at the second position, and display second indication informationat the second position, where the second indication information is usedfor indicating an occurrence at the second position in the VR scene.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the thirdcontrol module includes: a first display submodule, configured todisplay a moving first dot at the first position, where the firstindication information includes the moving first dot; and the fourthcontrol module includes: a second display submodule, configured todisplay a moving second dot at the second position, where the secondindication information includes the moving second dot, and a movingdirection from the first dot to the second dot is used for representinga change process of the virtual character from the first position to thesecond position.

According to some embodiments of the present application, as shown inFIG. 10b , the apparatus further includes: a display unit 40, configuredto display third indication information used for indicating thedesignated movement before the second position away from the firstposition by the designated movement is determined. The determining unit20 includes: a first determining module, configured to determine thesecond position according to the third indication information.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the displayunit 40 includes: a display module, configured to display a curve usedfor indicating the designated movement, where the third indicationinformation includes the curve.

The first determining module includes a first determining submodule anda second determining submodule. The first determining submodule isconfigured to determine an intersection position of the curve and apreset plane, where the preset plane is used for supporting the virtualcharacter. The second determining submodule is configured to determinean area within a preset distance range away from the intersectionposition as a position indicated by the second position.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the seconddetermining submodule is further configured to: detect whether thesecond position is valid in the VR scene; determine the area within thepreset distance range away from the intersection position as theposition indicated by the second position if it is detected that thesecond position is valid in the VR scene; and display preset markinformation if it is detected that the second position is not valid inthe VR scene, where the preset mark information is used for indicatingthat the second position is not valid in the VR scene.

According to some embodiments of the present application, as shown inFIG. 10c , the apparatus further includes a first receiving unit 50 anda cancellation unit 60. The first receiving unit 50 is configured to:receive a second instruction after the third indication information usedfor indicating the designated movement is displayed, where the secondinstruction is used for instructing to cancel placement of the virtualcharacter from the first position, and the placement includes thedesignated movement; and the cancellation unit 60 is configured tocontrol the virtual character to cancel the designated movement from thefirst position after the second instruction is received.

According to some embodiments of the present application, thedetermining unit 20 includes: a first receiving module, configured toreceive a third instruction, where the third instruction is used forindicating a position indicated by the second position; and a seconddetermining module, configured to determine the position indicated bythe second position after the third instruction is received.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the firstreceiving module includes: a first acquiring submodule, configured toacquire position information of a first operating object in a real-worldscene, where the first operating object is configured to adjust theposition indicated by the second position, and the position informationcorresponds to the position indicated by the second position; and asecond acquiring submodule, configured to acquire the third instructionaccording to the position information.

According to some embodiments of the present application, thedetermining unit 20 includes: a second receiving module, configured toreceive a fourth instruction, where the fourth instruction is used forindicating an orientation indicated by the second position; and a thirddetermining module, configured to determine the orientation indicated bythe second position after the fourth instruction is received.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the secondreceiving module includes: a third acquiring submodule, configured toacquire angle information of a second operating object in a real-worldscene, where the second operating object is configured to adjust theorientation indicated by the second position, and the angle informationcorresponds to the orientation indicated by the second position; and afourth acquiring submodule, configured to acquire the fourth instructionaccording to the angle information.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the receivingunit 10 includes: a third receiving module, configured to receive thefirst instruction by using a joystick; and the determining unit 20includes: a fourth determining module, configured to determine thesecond position by using the joystick; or

the receiving unit 10 includes: a fourth receiving module, configured toreceive the first instruction by using a touchpad; and the determiningunit 20 includes: a fifth determining module, configured to determinethe second position by using the touchpad.

It should be noted that the receiving unit 10 in this embodiment may beconfigured to perform step S202 in the foregoing method embodiment ofthe present application, the determining unit 20 in this embodiment maybe configured to perform step S204 in the foregoing method embodiment ofthe present application, and the control unit 30 in this embodiment maybe configured to perform step S206 in the foregoing method embodiment ofthe present application.

The receiving unit 10 in this embodiment receives the first instructionused for instructing to generate the designated movement of the virtualcharacter from the first position in the VR scene, the determining unit20 determines the second position away from the first position by thedesignated movement after the first instruction is received, and thecontrol unit 30 controls the virtual character to disappear from thefirst position and controls the virtual character to appear at thesecond position, the virtual character having not appeared between thefirst position and the second position, that is, the virtual characteris controlled to disappear from the first position and the virtualcharacter is controlled to appear at the second position in the VRscene, so that the virtual character is teleported to avoid continuousmovement, and a technical effect of preventing a user from easilyfeeling dizzy because of continuous movement of a virtual character isachieved, thereby resolving a technical problem in related technologiesthat a user easily feels dizzy because of continuous movement of avirtual character.

It should be noted here that the foregoing units and modules haveexamples and application scenarios the same as those implemented by thesteps in the corresponding method embodiments, but are not limited tothe content disclosed in the foregoing method embodiment. It should benoted that the foregoing modules may be run as a part of the apparatusin the hardware environment shown in FIG. 1, and may be implemented bysoftware or by hardware, where the hardware environment includes anetwork environment.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a computingdevice, for example, a server or a terminal, configured to implement theforegoing method for controlling placement of a virtual character.

FIG. 11 is a structural block diagram of a terminal according to anembodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 11, the terminalmay include one or more (only one processor is shown in the figure)processors 111, a memory 113, and a transmission apparatus 115. As shownin FIG. 11, the terminal may further include an input/output device 117.

The memory 113 may be configured to store a software program and amachine readable instruction module, for example, programinstructions/modules corresponding to the method and apparatus forcontrolling placement of a virtual character in the embodiments of thepresent application. The processor 111 runs the software program andmodule stored in the memory 113 to implement various functionalapplications and data processing, that is, implement the foregoingmethod for controlling placement of a virtual character. The memory 113may include a high-speed random access memory (RAM), and may alsoinclude a nonvolatile memory, for example, one or more magnetic storagedevices, flash memories or other nonvolatile solid-state memories. Insome embodiments, the memory 113 may further include memories remotelydisposed relative to the processor 111, and these remote memories may beconnected to the terminal via a network. Examples of the networkinclude, but are not limited to, the Internet, an intranet, a local areanetwork, a mobile communications network, or a combination thereof

The transmission apparatus 115 is configured to receive or send data viaone network, and may further be configured to perform data transmissionbetween the processor and the memory. Specific examples of the networkmay include a wired network and a wireless network. In an example, thetransmission apparatus 115 includes a network interface controller (NIC)that may be connected to another network device or router via a networkcable to communicate with the Internet or a local area network. In anexample, the transmission apparatus 115 is a radio frequency (RF) modulethat is configured to wirelessly communicate with the Internet.

Specifically, the memory 113 is configured to store an applicationprogram, that is, machine readable instructions.

The processor 111 may invoke and execute the application program storedin the memory 113 via the transmission apparatus 115 to perform thefollowing steps:

receiving a first instruction used for instructing to generatedesignated movement of a virtual character from a first position in a VRscene;

determining a second position away from the first position by thedesignated movement after the first instruction is received; and

controlling the virtual character to disappear from the first positionand controlling the virtual character to appear at the second position,the virtual character having not appeared between the first position andthe second position.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:controlling the virtual character to stay at the first position andcontrolling a viewer to cut to black after the second position isdetermined, where the viewer is used for displaying a picture of the VRscene; and controlling the viewer to restore display and controlling thevirtual character to stay at the second position after the viewer iscontrolled to cut to black.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:controlling the viewer to gradually cut to black, where the virtualcharacter is kept at the first position as the viewer gradually cuts toblack; and controlling the viewer to gradually restore display, wherethe virtual character is kept at the second position as the viewergradually restores display.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:controlling the virtual character to disappear from the first position,and displaying first indication information at the first position afterthe second position is determined, where the first indicationinformation is used for indicating an occurrence at the first positionin the VR scene; and controlling the virtual character to appear at thesecond position, and displaying second indication information at thesecond position, where the second indication information is used forindicating an occurrence at the second position in the VR scene.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:displaying a moving first dot at the first position, where the firstindication information includes the moving first dot; displaying amoving second dot at the second position, where the second indicationinformation includes the moving second dot, and a moving direction fromthe first dot to the second dot is used for representing a changeprocess of the virtual character from the first position to the secondposition.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:displaying third indication information used for indicating thedesignated movement before the second position away from the firstposition by the designated movement is determined; and determining thesecond position according to the third indication information.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:displaying a curve used for indicating the designated movement, wherethe third indication information includes the curve; determining anintersection position of the curve and a preset plane, where the presetplane is used for supporting the virtual character; and determining anarea within a preset distance range away from the intersection positionas a position indicated by the second position.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:detecting whether the second position is valid in the VR scene;determining the area within the preset distance range away from theintersection position as the position indicated by the second positionif it is detected that the second position is valid in the VR scene; anddisplaying preset mark information if it is detected that the secondposition is not valid in the VR scene, where the preset mark informationis used for indicating that the second position is not valid in the VRscene.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:receiving a second instruction after the third indication informationused for indicating the designated movement is displayed, where thesecond instruction is used for instructing to cancel placement of thevirtual character from the first position, and the placement includesthe designated movement; and controlling the virtual character to cancelthe designated movement from the first position after the secondinstruction is received.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:receiving a third instruction, where the third instruction is used forindicating a position indicated by the second position; and determiningthe position indicated by the second position after the thirdinstruction is received.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:acquiring position information of a first operating object in areal-world scene, where the first operating object is configured toadjust the position indicated by the second position, and the positioninformation corresponds to the position indicated by the secondposition; and acquiring the third instruction according to the positioninformation.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:receiving a fourth instruction, where the fourth instruction is used forindicating an orientation indicated by the second position; anddetermining the orientation indicated by the second position after thefourth instruction is received.

The processor 111 is further configured to perform the following steps:acquiring angle information of a second operating object in a real-worldscene, where the second operating object is configured to adjust theorientation indicated by the second position, and the angle informationcorresponds to the orientation indicated by the second position; andacquiring the fourth instruction according to the angle information.

The embodiments of the present application provide a solution forcontrolling placement of a virtual character. A first instruction usedfor instructing to generate designated movement of a virtual characterfrom a first position is received in a VR scene; a second position awayfrom the first position by the designated movement is determined afterthe first instruction is received; and the virtual character iscontrolled to disappear from the first position and the virtualcharacter is controlled to appear at the second position, the virtualcharacter having not appeared between the first position and the secondposition, that is, the virtual character is controlled to disappear fromthe first position and the virtual character is controlled to appear atthe second position in the VR scene, so that the virtual character isteleported to avoid continuous movement, and a technical effect ofpreventing a user from easily feeling dizzy because of continuousmovement of a virtual character is achieved, thereby resolving atechnical problem in related technologies that a user easily feels dizzybecause of continuous movement of a virtual character.

According to some embodiments of the present application, for specificexamples in this embodiment, refer to the examples described in theforegoing embodiments. Details are not described herein again in detailin this embodiment.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand that the structurein FIG. 11 is only shown schematically. The terminal may be a terminaldevice such as a smartphone (for example, an Android phone, and an iOSphone), a tablet computer, a handheld computer, a mobile Internet device(MID), and a PAD. FIG. 11 does not constitute a limitation to thestructure of the foregoing electronic apparatus. For example, theterminal may include more or fewer components (for example, a networkinterface, and a display apparatus) than those shown in FIG. 11, or havea configuration different from that shown in FIG. 11.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or some ofthe steps in the methods in the foregoing embodiments may be implementedby a program instructing relevant hardware of a terminal device. Theprogram may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The storagemedium may be a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), a RAM, amagnetic disk, an optical disc, or the like.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a non-volatilecomputer readable storage medium. In this embodiment of the presentapplication, the foregoing storage medium may be configured to storeprogram code of the method for controlling placement of a virtualcharacter provided in the foregoing method embodiments.

In this embodiment of the present application, the foregoing storagemedium may be located on least one of a plurality of network devices inthe network shown in the foregoing embodiments.

In this embodiment of the present application, the storage medium isconfigured to store program code used for performing the followingsteps:

receiving a first instruction used for instructing to generatedesignated movement of a virtual character from a first position in a VRscene;

determining a second position away from the first position by thedesignated movement after the first instruction is received; and

controlling the virtual character to disappear from the first positionand controlling the virtual character to appear at the second position,the virtual character having not appeared between the first position andthe second position.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: controlling the virtual character to stay at thefirst position and controlling a viewer to cut to black after the secondposition is determined, where the viewer is used for displaying apicture of the VR scene; and controlling the viewer to restore displayand controlling the virtual character to stay at the second positionafter the viewer is controlled to cut to black.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: controlling the viewer to gradually cut to black,where the virtual character is kept at the first position as the viewergradually cuts to black; and controlling the viewer to gradually restoredisplay, where the virtual character is kept at the second position asthe viewer gradually restores display.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: controlling the virtual character to disappear fromthe first position, and displaying first indication information at thefirst position after the second position is determined, where the firstindication information is used for indicating an occurrence at the firstposition in the VR scene; and controlling the virtual character toappear at the second position, and displaying second indicationinformation at the second position, where the second indicationinformation is used for indicating an occurrence at the second positionin the VR scene.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: displaying a moving first dot at the firstposition, where the first indication information includes the movingfirst dot; displaying a moving second dot at the second position, wherethe second indication information includes the moving second dot, and amoving direction from the first dot to the second dot is used forrepresenting a change process of the virtual character from the firstposition to the second position.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: displaying third indication information used forindicating the designated movement before the second position away fromthe first position by the designated movement is determined; anddetermining the second position according to the third indicationinformation.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: displaying a curve used for indicating thedesignated movement, where the third indication information includes thecurve; determining an intersection position of the curve and a presetplane, where the preset plane is used for supporting the virtualcharacter; and determining an area within a preset distance range awayfrom the intersection position as a position indicated by the secondposition.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: detecting whether the second position is valid inthe VR scene; determining the area within the preset distance range awayfrom the intersection position as the position indicated by the secondposition if it is detected that the second position is valid in the VRscene; and displaying preset mark information if it is detected that thesecond position is not valid in the VR scene, where the preset markinformation is used for indicating that the second position is not validin the VR scene.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: receiving a second instruction after the thirdindication information used for indicating the designated movement isdisplayed, where the second instruction is used for instructing tocancel placement of the virtual character from the first position, andthe placement includes the designated movement; and controlling thevirtual character to cancel the designated movement from the firstposition after the second instruction is received.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: receiving a third instruction, where the thirdinstruction is used for indicating a position indicated by the secondposition; and determining the position indicated by the second positionafter the third instruction is received.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: acquiring position information of a first operatingobject in a real-world scene, where the first operating object isconfigured to adjust the position indicated by the second position, andthe position information corresponds to the position indicated by thesecond position; and acquiring the third instruction according to theposition information.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: receiving a fourth instruction, where the fourthinstruction is used for indicating an orientation indicated by thesecond position; and determining the orientation indicated by the secondposition after the fourth instruction is received.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the storagemedium is further configured to store program code used for performingthe following steps: acquiring angle information of a second operatingobject in a real-world scene, where the second operating object isconfigured to adjust the orientation indicated by the second position,and the angle information corresponds to the orientation indicated bythe second position; and acquiring the fourth instruction according tothe angle information.

For specific examples of this embodiments, refer to examples describedin the foregoing embodiments. Details are not described herein again indetail in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, the foregoing storage medium may include, but is notlimited to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drive, a ROM, a RAM, aremovable hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disc, among variousother media that can store program code.

If the integrated units in the foregoing embodiments are implemented ina form of software functional units and are sold or used as anindependent product, the units may be stored in a computer readablestorage medium. Based on this, the foregoing technical solutions of theembodiments of the present application or the entire technical solutionor the part that makes contributions to the existing technology can besubstantially embodied in the form of a software product. The computersoftware product may be stored in a storage medium and contain severalmachine readable instructions to instruct one or more pieces of computerequipment (for example, a personal computer, a server, or networkequipment) to perform all or some the steps of the method described inthe embodiments of the present application.

In the foregoing embodiments of the present application, descriptions ofthe embodiments have different emphases, and as for parts that are notdescribed in detail in one embodiment, refer to the relevantdescriptions of the other embodiments.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, itshould be understood that the disclosed client may be implemented inother manners. The described apparatus embodiments are merely schematic.For example, division of the units is merely division of logicfunctions, and there may be another division manner during actualimplementation. For example, multiple units or components may becombined or may be integrated into another system, or some features maybe omitted or not be executed. In addition, the displayed or discussedmutual coupling, or direct coupling, or communication connections may beimplemented through some interfaces. Indirect coupling or communicationconnections between the units or modules may be implemented inelectronic or other forms.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physicallyseparate, and the parts displayed as units may or may not be physicalunits, may be located in one position, or may be distributed on aplurality of network units. Some of or all of the units may be selectedaccording to actual needs to achieve the objectives of the solutions ofthe embodiments.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the presentapplication may be integrated into one processing unit, or each of theunits may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integratedinto one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in a form ofhardware or may be implemented in a form of a software functional unit.

Only exemplary embodiments of the present application are described. Itshould be noted by persons of ordinary skill in the art thatimprovements and modifications may be made without departing from theprinciple of the present application, which should be construed asfalling within the protection scope of the present application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for controlling placement of a virtual character, implemented by a computing device, and comprising: displaying a virtual character at a first position in a virtual reality (VR) scene; receiving a first instruction in the VR scene, the first instruction indicating moving the virtual character from the first position by a designated movement; displaying, in response to receiving the first instruction, third indication information as a preview of the designated movement in the VR scene; determining, according to the first instruction, a second position by the designated movement from the first position in response to the first instruction; removing the virtual character from the first position; and placing the virtual character at the second position, the virtual character not appearing between the first position and the second position after being removed from the first position.
 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: maintaining the virtual character at the first position; controlling a viewer to cut to black screen after the second position is determined, the viewer displaying the VR scene; placing the virtual character at the second position after the viewing camera cutting to black; and controlling the viewer to restore a display of the VR scene.
 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: controlling the viewer to gradually cut to black, the virtual character staying at the first position as the viewer gradually cutting to black; and controlling the viewer to gradually restore the display of the VR scene, the virtual character being placed at the second position as the viewer gradually restores the display.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: removing the virtual character from the first position, and displaying first indication information at the first position after the second position is determined, the first indication information indicating an occurrence at the first position in the VR scene; and placing the virtual character at the second position, and displaying second indication information at the second position, the second indication information indicating an occurrence at the second position in the VR scene.
 5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising: displaying a moving first dot at the first position, the first indication information comprising the moving first dot; and displaying a moving second dot at the second position, the second indication information comprising the moving second dot, and a moving direction from the first dot to the second dot representing the virtual character moving from the first position to the second position.
 6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: displaying a curve used for indicating the designated movement, the third indication information comprising the curve; determining an intersection position of the curve and a plane, the plane supporting the virtual character in the VR scene; and determining an area within a distance of the intersection position as a position indicated by the second position.
 7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: detecting whether the second position is valid in the VR scene; determining the area within the distance from the intersection position as the position indicated by the second position if the second position is valid in the VR scene; and displaying preset mark information if the second position is not valid in the VR scene, the mark information indicating that the second position is not valid in the VR scene.
 8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: displaying, in response to receiving the first instruction, the third indication information as the preview of the designated movement in the VR scene for a buffering time duration; and determining, according to the first instruction, the second position by the designated movement from the first position in response to the first instruction not being cancelled in the buttering time duration.
 9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: receiving a second instruction within the buffering time duration, the second instruction indicating cancelling moving the virtual character from the first position by the designated movement; and maintaining the virtual character at the first position after the second instruction is received.
 10. The method according to claim 8, wherein displaying the third indication information comprises: displaying an extending process of a ray, a duration of the extending process being the buffering time duration, an extending destination of a head of the ray being the second position.
 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the ray is a curve, and displaying the extending process of the ray comprises projecting the curve from a position corresponding to a hand of the user towards a front direction of a controller of the user; and bending and extending the curve to reach the second position at an end of the extending process.
 12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving a third instruction, the third instruction indicating a location indicated by the second position; and determining the location indicated by the second position after the third instruction is received.
 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the receiving a third instruction comprises: acquiring location information of a first operating object in a real-world scene, the first operating object being configured to adjust the location indicated by the second position, and the location information corresponding to the second position; and acquiring the third instruction according to the location information.
 14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving a fourth instruction, the fourth instruction indicating an orientation indicated by the second position; and determining the orientation indicated by the second position after the fourth instruction is received.
 15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising: acquiring angle information of a second operating object in a real-world scene, the second operating object being configured to adjust the orientation of the second position, and the angle information corresponding to the orientation of the second position; and acquiring the fourth instruction according to the angle information.
 16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving the first instruction in response to one or more user operations on a physical controller; and determining the second position by using the physical controller.
 17. An apparatus for controlling placement of a virtual character in virtual reality (VR) scene, comprising: a processor and a memory connected to the processor, the memory storing machine readable instructions executable by the processor, and the processor executing the machine readable instructions to perform: displaying a virtual character at a first position in a virtual reality (VR) scene; receiving a first instruction in the VR scene, the first instruction indicating moving the virtual character from the first position by a designated movement; displaying, in response to receiving the first instruction, third indication information as a preview of the designated movement in the VR scene; determining, according to the first instruction, a second position by the designated movement from the first position in response to the first instruction; removing the virtual character from the first position; and placing the virtual character at the second position, the virtual character not appearing between the first position and the second position after being removed from the first position.
 18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the processor executes the machine readable instructions to implement: maintaining the virtual character at the first position; controlling a viewer to cut to black screen after the second position is determined, the viewer displaying the VR scene; placing the virtual character at the second position after the viewing camera cutting to black; and controlling the viewer to restore a display of the VR scene.
 19. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the processor executes the machine readable instructions to implement: displaying, in response to receiving the first instruction, the third indication information as the preview of the designated movement in the VR scene for a buffering time duration; and determining, according to the first instruction, the second position by the designated movement from the first position in response to the first instruction not being cancelled in the buttering time duration.
 20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the storage medium storing machine readable instructions, and the machine readable instructions being executable by a processor to perform: displaying a virtual character at a first position in a virtual reality (VR) scene; receiving a first instruction in the VR scene, the first instruction indicating moving the virtual character from the first position by a designated movement; displaying, in response to receiving the first instruction, third indication information as a preview of the designated movement in the VR scene; determining, according to the first instruction, a second position by the designated movement from the first position in response to the first instruction; removing the virtual character from the first position; and placing the virtual character at the second position, the virtual character not appearing between the first position and the second position after being removed from the first position. 